


Howl Home (Shift for Me)

by Menatiera



Series: Bingo Fills [13]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Canon-Typical Violence, Captain America Reverse Big Bang 2019, Gen, M/M, Memory Loss, actual wolf Steve Rogers, animal companion, captain sassypants, creature!Natasha, shapeshifter Steve Rogers, this fic is almost entirely gen, with stucky endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 18:27:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19068190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Menatiera/pseuds/Menatiera
Summary: “Oh yeah, I nearly forgot,” Barnes remarked, sitting up, which resulted in a low growl from the wolf. Peggy’s hand slipped to her pistol. “Hush, I’ll be back,” Barnes said casually, and the voice was cut immediately.“This animal is now with me. He’s no threat and not under anyone’s command. He’s smart and can help us and I am capable of keeping him in check. The SSR won’t get closer to him than this,” Barnes stated every sentence matter of factly.As Captain America, Bucky Barnes rescued a hyper-intelligent wolf from HYDRA during the war. He makes a good fit with the Howling Commandos - and later, with the Avengers.My Captain America Reverse Big Bang fic, and also Bucky Barnes Bingo and Stark Spangled Bingo fill.





	1. 1944-45

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Art for Howl Home (Shift for Me)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19035370) by [Entwinedlove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entwinedlove/pseuds/Entwinedlove). 



> Huge thanks for Entwinedlove for the inspiring picture - your crochet babies are adorable and amazing! Faustess and Winnie did wonderful work with betaing this fic - all remaining mistakes are on me.  
> A lot of people helped and cheered me through the writing process - I'm grateful for you all. Thank you.
> 
> ***
> 
> Bucky Barnes Bingo fill:  
> Title: Howl Home (Shift for Me) - chapter 1  
> Square Filled: C4 - Shapeshifters  
> Author: Menatiera  
> Pairing: Steve & Bucky (endgame Steve/Bucky)  
> Rating: Teen  
> Warnings: canon-typical violence  
> Summary: As Captain America, Bucky Barnes rescued a hyper-intelligent wolf from HYDRA during the war. He makes a good fit with the Howling Commandos - and later, to the Avengers.
> 
> Stark Spangled Man Bingo fill:  
> Square filled: B2 - Memory Loss.

“What do you think, pal?” Bucky asked quietly, kneeling in the mud.

The grey wolf next to him whined softly, pawed the ground seven times, and yapped.

“Thought so,” Bucky nodded. “Won’t be a problem. Thanks.”

He and the wolf quietly retreated from their vantage point and joined the other members of the Commandos to inform them of the Nazi outpost with seven men they’d discovered, along with the plan of how to storm them.

***

“Anything to report?” Peggy asked the men around the campfire. She got only headshakes as answers, but they weren’t as uncomfortable around her as they had been the first time, so she figured someone might’ve talked to them about how to act under the command of a female superior.

“I see,” she said, and her tone turned to ice and daggers as she eyed Barnes, splayed out and clearly asleep - using an actual, living wolf as a pillow under his head. Peggy had no idea where they had gotten a wolf from, let alone how did they tame it. She couldn’t decide if she was more curious, impressed or horrified. “No one thinks _that_ as something worthy of an explanation, gentlemen?”

Everyone exchanged looks, and even the air around them felt like dropping to freezing points as they tried to figure out the best answer.

“Our new companion is not SSR’s or the military’s concern, so nothing to report,” Barnes said, not opening his eyes. His voice was calm but firm, and Peggy couldn’t say if he had only pretended to sleep or he woke up to the events.

“You’re a special unit, everything in connection with you is the SSR’s concern,” Peggy answered. She liked Barnes, but she and Phillips were held accountable for his choices, so she was also a bit wary of him. Barnes had formed these men into a hard-hitting commando unit in no time, but when it came to superiors, he wasn’t nearly as social as with his men.

“Oh yeah, I nearly forgot,” Barnes remarked, sitting up, which resulted in a low growl from the wolf. Peggy’s hand slipped to her pistol. “Hush, I’ll be back,” Barnes said casually, and the voice was cut immediately.

Peggy felt her face twitch and her core muscles shivering with the effort to stay in her place. By now she was pretty sure she not only wanted to but also needed to take a closer look at this.

“This animal is now with me. He’s no threat and not under anyone’s command. He’s smart and can help us and I am capable of keeping him in check. The SSR won’t get closer to him than this,” Barnes stated every sentence matter of factly.

Peggy was both annoyed and amazed as she watched this man who had every promotion fall into his lap, and yet had the gall to demand more special treatment.

“I don’t think that’s your call, Captain Barnes,” she warned.

“Oh, it is. The SSR leaves him alone, otherwise he’ll be gone before you can blink, which would make this unit less effective, and effectiveness is all the SSR cares about, right, Agent Carter?”

Peggy could understand, more or less, where Barnes was coming from thanks to his bitter tone, but still she gritted her teeth. As opposed to other men, Barnes acted the same way with Colonel Phillips, so she couldn’t even accuse him of being disrespectful because she happened to be a woman. Barnes was unapologetic, and after everything he’d been through, they let it slide because he alone had accomplished more than anyone else.

And since he had received the Captain rank and the Commandos under his command, he just became even more capable in the field.

“Would you please follow me to the tent, Captain Barnes?” Peggy asked, and made sure that her voice didn’t betray her annoyance.

“Of course, Agent Carter.” Barnes didn’t smile or try to charm her, didn’t try to flirt with her. He got to his feet, his movements light and easy despite his size, and looked at his men. “Jim, keep Steve company, okay?”

Morita was on his feet before Barnes finished the sentence and rounded the campfire to take his place next to the animal.

Peggy raised an eyebrow and turned on her heels to march to the tent. Oh, she’d _need_ to get answers.

***

Steve was alone. He didn’t remember a time he wasn’t alone, or if there had been a time at all. He had some distant recollection of his mother, but that was basically all. He remembered her teaching him about his gifts, about his bloodline’s heritage – but he couldn’t recall the exact lessons. He was quite sure she taught him how to handle his abilities, whatever they had been, but that knowledge had faded a long time ago.

He only knew what his instincts told him.

But his instincts didn’t prepare him for the humans’ war.

Normally Steve didn’t care about humans. They weren’t prey, not like rabbits or deer. He didn’t seek their company either. They weren’t exactly mates, no matter how close they were to it by looks, their scent wasn’t of a pack. He figured, if he really felt alone, he could give it a try, but he never had been lonely enough for that.

When the group of humans entered his forest, and they had things that smelled so strange and tempting, he got close to them without fear of the consequences and it proved to be a horrible mistake.

His days in captivity were the worst Steve could remember.

During that confinement he didn’t plan to trust humans ever again.

Not until he met Bucky.

***

“I’ll take the first two watches with Steve. Someone take my tent, I won’t use it. Gabe, your turn at midnight, DumDum at 0200, Morita at 0400, Dernier at 0600,” Bucky ordered, and everyone acknowledged without hesitation. They set up camp like a well-oiled machine, chatting quietly. They weren’t exactly behind enemy lines, but it would have been a big stretch to call it safe too.

While the men busied themselves, Bucky went into the forest with the wolf by his side. They walked quietly for a while, Bucky’s fingers finding their way to the wolf’s fur and petting gently. Steve was the perfect height to walk like this, connected through touch, Bucky’s hand resting comfortably on his shoulder.

“Seems peaceful, doesn’t it?” Bucky asked, taking deep breaths. As long as there wasn’t wind, the air tasted clear. Bucky knew all too well that as soon as the eastern wind awoke, the air would be filled with the distant taste of gunpowder, fire and pain. War infected everything, filled the streams with death and the lands with ash and the air with desperation.

Steve let out a quiet, careful whine.

“Yeah, things have changed, buddy. But I’m glad you’re here for me,” Bucky admitted. “I wish I understood what happened to me. Or what we are exactly.”

They were both lost, that much Bucky knew. They were both experimented upon. The Nazis did something to Bucky that had made him faster, stronger. He had healed more quickly than any other person he had met and without scars, and his reflexes were better now than he ever could have imagined.

Steve, on the other hand... Steve was a huge and powerful wolf, but what seemed the most remarkable was his intelligence. His way of understanding human speech and answering to it in his own way, and his way of overseeing and reading situations like no one else was more than a bit unique. He even had a strategic mindset, too. He was unmatched, like nothing Bucky had ever seen.

And he was a good friend. Loyal and protective, Steve stuck to Bucky’s side since Bucky had freed him from the cage he was locked up in.

The Howlies sometimes joked that Bucky and Steve could read each other’s minds. Which was ridiculous, of course - there was no such thing as mind-reading, after all, and everyone knew that. But Steve and Bucky understood each other on a fundamental level, to a degree that Bucky started to think Steve was his only real friend, the only living being he could be himself with.

It helped.

It kept him sane.

Bucky just hoped he could help Steve as well with his presence.

***

“Heading to the jump point,” Barnes reported in the comms, and Peggy watched the flight path of the plane.

It was a risky mission. So risky that Barnes was actually on his own, the SSR didn’t mention the task to his Commando unit, not wanting to lose all their men at once if this went sideways. Barnes insisted he’d do it. Even alone.

“What are you doing? Put that animal down!” another tinny voice yelled in Peggy’s earpiece, and her blood suddenly ran colder.

“Captain, are you telling me you have that creature with you?!” she whispered, because she was convinced she would scream at him for his irresponsibility if she let her voice get louder than that.

“He’s a wolf, not just a creature,” Barnes had the gall to correct her, and Peggy wondered, not for the first time, how this man had lived long enough to come to the warzone in the first place.

“Captain,” Peggy repeated, doing her best to regain her composure, “Are you telling me that to gather extremely important and time-sensitive information for us, you’re going to jump out of an airplane, into the middle of invaded Poland, far behind enemy lines, with an untamed animal in your arms?”

“Of course not,” Barnes answered, and then there was wind, and howling, and he had to yell fo finish. “He’s strapped on me properly, I wouldn’t endanger him!”

Peggy covered her microphone with one hand, bit her other hand, and let out a muffled scream of frustration. Barnes was going to be the death of her.

***

The mission went well.

It wasn’t as covert as the SSR wished it to be, but Bucky didn’t mind that a bit.

Let Hydra know what was coming.

Let them know that their experiment was coming to bite them in the ass.

In Steve’s case, quite literally.

***

“You’ve endangered our operations!” Agent Carter said.

“I’ve finished a mission successfully,” Bucky countered, standing at parades rest in the officers’ tent.

“With half of a small town burned down!”

“There were no civilian casualties,” Bucky pointed out. He was very thorough with that. He wouldn’t want innocents to die because of his crusade. He and Steve made sure to usher the people out, starting even before the fire really caught any attention, and then organized the evacuation until everyone was in safety.

“Now Hydra knows that we’re after their weapons!” Peggy scolded undisturbed. Bucky raised an eyebrow.

“Pardon me for my bluntness, Agent Carter, but Hydra isn’t just filled with idiots. We’ve destroyed seventeen Hydra outposts and three different weapon factories in the last eight weeks. I highly doubt that they didn’t put two and two together and wondered on the off-chance that they, somehow, by accident, _might_ be Captain America’s main target.”

Agent Carter gave him a long and hard look, but finally sat down and rubbed her temple. “Do you practice in advance or is it just natural talent?”

“I was born to be hilarious,” Bucky bowed a bit, smirking.

“I meant your ability to lift my blood pressure to unhealthy levels, Captain. You may be many things but ‘hilarious’ is definitely not among them.”

“You’ve hurt my feelings, Agent Carter,” Bucky raised his hands to his chest.

“You’re better off than many of our subordinates as long as it’s just your feelings, and not your body,” Carter deadpanned. “Dismissed. Return to your men, Barnes.”

Bucky saluted and left.

***

It was surprisingly hard to catch that bloody mutt alone. Barnes always seemed to be at the wolf’s side, and if he had to leave for some reason, he always assigned one of his men to “keep it company.”

To keep Steve company.

Peggy wondered where that name came from in the first place.

But she wasn’t a spy for nothing, and after careful planning and execution, she finally managed to orchestrate a meeting between them. They stood a few steps away from the camp border, among the trees and out of the lights’ halo, face to face. Peggy dropped her shoulders and didn’t raise her hands, aiming to be non-threatening, but Steve still growled and the hair on his back stood up.

“I don’t mean harm to you,” Peggy said, because the Commandos and Barnes always talked to the animal like he would understand. “I just need answers.”

No matter what the men had done, she still felt stupid. She’d seen weird things since she began serving in the SSR, but this was more superstition than anything else. Expecting a wild animal to not only understand her words, but to be able to somehow answer and communicate? That sounded like it was out of a bad sci-fi novel, but much more fiction than science.

The wolf seemed to scrutinize her for a few moments, his unwavering gaze as piercing as a blade’s point. Then he advanced forward, sniffing at her hands… and in the end, he poked her palm with his nose.

Peggy swallowed back a slightly hysterical laugh. “Really?” she whispered, and Steve sat down on his heels as if shrugging, and nudged her hand.

Peggy had no other choice than to pet him. His fur wasn’t as soft as it seemed, felt more like wire under her palm, highlighting that this animal had never been domesticated, and every part of him served a purpose. Steve’s tongue might loll out almost comically, but the fangs showing with this gesture were sharp, the weapons of a deadly predator. Peggy squatted down in the mud, carefully evening out the creases of her skirt with her free hand while doing so.

“So let’s talk,” she suggested. “What’s your endgame here, Steve?”

The wolf looked at her, and his eyes sparkled with intelligence but nothing indicated that Steve understood the question. Peggy sighed and tried to be more simple.

“Are you with the Germans?”

Steve pulled back so fast that Peggy nearly sat down unbalanced, and his growl was definitely threatening. His ears flattened on the top of his head, lips pulled up to show off the fangs more.

“Okay, I take that as a no,” Peggy said quickly, and the growl was cut abruptly. Peggy tried not to think too hard about the fact that she was having an actual, real conversation with a wolf. What had her life became since she was deployed with Americans? “Are you here to get blood?”

The wolf tilted his head and cautiously wiggled his tail.

“Any blood?”

The wiggle stopped and the beast lowered himself to his stomach, glancing up at Peggy, then sit up again.

“So not any blood would do. Only Germans, I assume. Are you trying to protect Captain Barnes?”

This time the wolf barked quietly and put one of his front paws on Peggy’s thigh. His face seemed like he was grinning that Peggy finally understood him.

Peggy blinked again. It was… definitely a good sign. Definitely a result to be happy with. And if she’d have nightmares because she wouldn’t be sure how to understand a world where wolves understood English and decided to take sides in human wars, so what. They still had to win.

And Steve was pretty helpful, actually, just like Barnes had promised.

“Alright, Steve. This means we are allies now. You’re protecting Barnes on the battlefield, and I’ve got his back in the Army. And if we both do our job well, he might come out of it alive. Okay?”

Steve licked her hand in agreement, then nudged her again in hope of more pets.

Peggy smiled and scratched him behind his ears.

“I like you,” she concluded.

Steve lolled his tongue out again and grinned even more.

***

Mission after mission, Steve remembered.

Being around people - around a pack - it helped.

He was at Bucky’s side whenever he could be, but he didn’t mind the other Howlies’ company either after a while. They were good people. They smelled nice. Familiar. Homely. Somehow the mixture of sweat, gun oil, campfire smoke, reek of fear, flavor of triumph, stench of bad food and their own whiff got combined into a scent that settled Steve better than anything in a long time. Bucky’s head was a welcomed weight as they rested at night, and his company appreciated during the days too.

And Steve remembered.

The voice of his mother was clearer than ever in his head.

He had siblings. He had little sisters, probably - he wasn’t sure yet, but he’d get there eventually.

He remembered that he was lonely even before the people who entered his forest had captured him. He remembered that he had lost things, important things - but it took him a while to realize that it was _his pack_ all along.

He wondered, sometimes, if these people could be his new pack, but it didn’t feel right.

Humans were not to be pack. And while he liked the Howlies, they were still humans. They wanted good, they acted good, but they were… they weren’t enough.

Steve looked at them sometimes and felt grey-dark-clouded-squeezed in his chest. He wished they could be his new pack.

He wished they could replace the memories he started to see in his dreams, of his family now gone.

Bucky, however...

Steve woke up in the middle of the night, slipped out from Bucky’s embrace, and went off to the forest, ran deep into it until he lost all the smells and sounds of the makeshift camp.  Ran until he found a stream to follow and until his legs were tired and then he stopped and howled his realization to the moon, challenging everything and everyone who dared to question him.

_Bucky was his pack._

Small, damaged and hardly working as a pack could be with only two members, that was what they both had.

_Bucky was his pack._

He would have protected Bucky even before this realization, but now it was settled for a lifetime, written in stones. Pack was to be there for each other. Pack was protection. Pack was family. Pack was life.

Steve knew, by experience, that losing a pack meant losing himself, and he knew he wouldn’t survive that once more.

_Bucky was his pack._

Bucky was more precious than his own life, and anyone who tried to harm Bucky would challenge Steve as well. That’s how the world worked. Through good and bad, through hardships and joys: the pack remained.

Steve howled until the moon wasn’t visible anymore and then he turned around, dust rousing in the wake of his paws, and sprinted until he was home at Bucky’s side.

***

When the intel came about Hydra’s headquarters, Bucky got assigned to be headfirst in the operation. Which was damn right. He would have thrown some desks otherwise.

He barged through the front gates, his motorcycle going down in flames when he abandoned it in favor of punching his way through the enemy. His shield bounced off walls and heads alike. Steve bolted out from the shadows of the forest around the base, leaping through the flaming remains of the gate and into the enemy lines.

Bucky more sensed than saw as Steve ripped off the head of a Hydra foot soldier and jumped to the next one.

They knew this song and dance by now. They could move like one, fight like one.

Bucky crouched with the shield when someone targeted Steve, and Steve leaped over his head when the shots were paused for a moment of reload, and the poor guy had no chance against the deadly fangs of the wolf.

They took out the soldiers’ flamethrowers. Bucky broke into the bunker, the shield coming in handy for the strengthened locks and doors.

Nazi screams greeted them wherever they went. Bucky didn't know much German, but he recognized one sentence over and over, because that was how he was usually referred to among them.  _"The Immortal is here!"_ a chorus of terrified yells echoed again and again as soon as they realized who he was.  _The Immortal and his Hellhound._ That was him and Steve for their enemies. He rather liked these nicknames.

Adrenaline flowed in his system as they ran through the corridors. Bucky laughed out loud when his earpiece got word of the Howlies joining them, and Steve yapped and howled with him, and their voice echoed in the base and their enemies were running from them and Bucky was sure they’d won the war.

***

Steve didn’t understand why Bucky was upset.

They were on a moving steel-and-metal cage, but they had killed everyone here, they weren’t endangered anymore. He sniffed around and his instincts picked up something _wrong_ , but there were no enemies alive around them, no one to threaten them. They had fought a fight - together, as a pack should - and they had won.

Their cage was moving and flying, but they had jumped out from moving-and-flying cages before and they even liked to do it. Steve, at least, liked to do it, and Bucky never smelled upset about it either.

But he was now. He was sitting in the front of the cage, in front of the shattered window that left them a perfect view of clouds, and his shoulders were hunched and he rested his head in his hands and he smelled of nothing but despair.

He slowly looked up. “Come here buddy,” he prompted, and Steve walked over and sat in front of Bucky and put his chin on his knees. He whined in worry.

“I have bad news, Stevie,” Bucky started, and Steve listened carefully. “I can’t leave this plane. Even if I die… I don’t know how much you’ll understand this - but this plane is full of bombs and I have to crash it to make sure they can’t hurt anyone. I’m sorry Steve. I tried to figure out how to make something so you could jump out safely, but I can’t.”

Steve understood. Steve had always understood everything Bucky said, the only problem was more to answer in a manner that would be understandable for Bucky and his limited senses. Bucky didn’t understand scents or barks like Steve did.

He licked Bucky’s hand and stayed in his place.

“Come on buddy, let’s go back and find something to make a parachute for you,” Bucky prompted.

Steve stayed, looked up at him and yawned.

_Bucky was pack._

He wouldn’t leave his pack behind.

If Bucky wanted to die, he had to do that with Steve too. Not like Steve was particularly fond of the idea, but being with Bucky till the very end was more important than what he liked or not.

“Steve,” Bucky warned.

Steve got on his hind legs, put his front paws on Bucky’s shoulder, and licked his face, then plastered himself over Bucky, letting all of his weight pin him to the seat.

“I can’t let you die!” Bucky protested.

Steve rubbed his forehead on Bucky’s face, yapping and grinning. Bucky, finally, got the meaning of it. He wrapped his arms around Steve’s torso, his embrace strong enough to be grounding but not strong enough to be suffocating.

“Thank you, Stevie,” he murmured, burying his face to Steve’s fur. “I shouldn’t accept it, but thank you. I’m so afraid…”

That was rubbish. Steve licked Bucky’s face. By both staying, they already avoided the worst thing to happen - to live without pack. To be alone again. Neither of them wanted to be alone again.

So if Bucky thought dying here was inevitable, they would do that together too.

Steve laid in front of Bucky’s feet while he radioed the base, telling the good-smelling, pack-leading female-Peggy-Agentcarter about the situation. When the explanation was made, Bucky hung up, and they crawled into each other’s lap, curling up together in a comfortable embrace. It was nice. Good. Safe.

Steve huffed and inhaled Bucky’s scent.

_Mate_ , something deep-rooted in him supplied.

_Bucky was pack and Bucky was mate._

Bucky reached out with one hand and pushed the controllers and as they were heading to the ground with the moving-and-flying metal cage. Steve threw back his head and howled.

For the first time ever, Bucky joined in. His voice was different than anything Steve had ever heard howling, sounded strange and almost weak, but it was _Bucky_ , it was his pack and it was his mate so it was also perfection.

They howled their victory and their defeat at the same time, until everything went dark with a crash.


	2. 2012

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Steve woke up._   
>  _Steve marveled about this fact for a moment, being sure that he wasn’t supposed to wake up, taking in the strange and alien smells, the soft beeping and the rushing of air moving… and realized what was missing._   
>  _Bucky was pack and Bucky was mate and Bucky was missing._
> 
> Chapter two, another BBB and SSM Bingo fill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bucky Barnes Bingo fill:  
> Title: Howl Home (Shift for Me) - chapter 2  
> Square Filled: B1 - Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow  
> Author: Menatiera  
> Pairing: Steve & Bucky (endgame Steve/Bucky)  
> Rating: Teen  
> Warnings: canon-typical violence  
> Summary: Steve woke up.  
> Steve marveled about this fact for a moment, being sure that he wasn’t supposed to wake up, taking in the strange and alien smells, the soft beeping and the rushing of air moving… and realized what was missing.  
> Bucky was pack and Bucky was mate and Bucky was missing.*
> 
> Stark Spangled Man Bingo fill:  
> Square: N5 - First time together.
> 
> Again huge thanks for Faustess and Winnie for the betaing, and Entwinedlove for the inspiring pic :)

Steve woke up.

Steve marveled about this fact for a moment, being sure that he wasn’t supposed to wake up, taking in the strange and alien smells, the soft beeping and the rushing of air moving… and realized what was missing.

_Bucky was pack and Bucky was mate and Bucky was missing._

Steve jumped to his feet, ignoring the rush of blood that clouded his eyes for a hot moment, ignoring the pain in his hind legs, ignoring everything else but the commanding need to find his pack. Find his mate. _Find Bucky._

Steve was in a room smelling similar to the Hydra laboratory he was saved from by Bucky, and there was a female in there wearing a white labcoat over her dress, and Steve lurched forward, teeth bared and fur on edge and ears flattened. The human ducked in time, but barely, and Steve flew over her head, not paying her any mind anymore because behind her back was a door revealed. Steve barreled into it with full force, his shoulder hurting and bleeding with the splinters after he broke through.

The corridor was busy. People - strange people, unfamiliar people not wearing any kind of uniforms - roamed it. Steve growled and showed fangs. Whoever they were, they were enemies. They’ve separated him from his pack. The people stared at him, stopping in their tracks, and Steve wanted to sink his teeth to their flesh for what they’d done but he had to find Bucky first. That was, that should be his priority, not the bloodlust and fury he felt towards these men.

He couldn’t smell Bucky, but something in him pulled him right, so he turned and ran right.

Before he reached the next hallway, alarms started blaring, and there were shouts from the direction he was heading, and Steve’s heart leapt in his ribcage because he was sure what that meant.

When Bucky ran toward him in the corridor, Steve didn’t dodge, he jumped right into Bucky’s open arm (what?), and licked his mate’s face enthusiastically twice. Then he pushed himself away, and Bucky let go and Steve arrived on four feet in the middle of the corridor, stance wide, both of them ready to fight. Steve took down an attacker, tearing into the fabric of his gear when the man wasn’t fast enough to avoid his fangs, and Bucky sweeped the legs out from under another one, and then they ran.

Bucky was slow – well, slower than usual for sure, and it took Steve a moment to register the events that just happened.

Bucky, and the moves he had fought with. Bucky, and his open arm.

Not arms; because he didn’t have arms – he only had one, the left missing. It clearly slowed him down, but he was up and fighting, so Steve did the same, biting anyone who managed to come close, but avoiding everyone they were able to.

His mate was injured. Steve needed to take both of them to some sort of safety, then he needed to get help – he needed to get the Commando and good-smelling and pack-leading female-Peggy-Agentcarter to help Bucky. But he had to get them out of here first to be able to find their friends.

Bucky found an entrance that led to the outside world. They barrelled through it, and then they both stopped, confused.

The world… it wasn’t like anything they’ve seen. Steve shivered, his tail between his legs and his fangs showed as he tried to follow all the movements around them but being unable to. It was bright and flashy and so many colors that made his head and eyes hurt and it was _so unnatural_ that he wanted to whine and cower.

Bucky placed a placating hand on his shoulder, and they were approached by a man who radiated authority in a form that Steve could even smell it – leader of a huge pack, the scent warned. Steve stepped between Bucky and the man, straightening himself and lifting his head up high, and he growled, but Bucky’s fingers tightened in his fur so he didn’t do anything more yet and let his mate speak. It was the human’s world, after all, and Bucky was closer to humans than Steve.

***

Bucky didn’t like Fury one bit, but Fury was the head of the renamed-to-SHIELD SSR, and Fury provided them not only an explanation (however strange it was) and proper medical attention, but also the keys of an apartment suitable for a man and a wolf.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start. And Bucky needed to start somewhere, because as unbelievable as Fury’s tale was about sleeping in ice for seventy years, it seemed to be the truth.

Bucky needed to catch up to formulate plans, to be able to take care of himself and Steve – especially in his new physical state. The loss of his arm was nearly as painful as the loss of everything he’d ever known, friends and family and a familiar world alike.

He was stranded in a strange future and he wasn’t even able-bodied anymore.

He was painfully alone, save from Steve. He remembered their nicknames, and felt hysterical laugh bubbling in his stomach every time. _The Immortal._ He indeed outlived most of his friends, while everyone thought he was the first to die. The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on him.

The only thing left for him was Steve, and Bucky spent most of his day with his hand or face buried to the wolf’s fur, accompanied by the low rumble sound coming from Steve and that he jokingly called purring, and tried to come to terms with the events.

***

“You’re late,” Peggy said when Barnes showed up on her doorstep. It was past five, almost the end of visiting time in the care center where she lived. Barnes held a bouquet of flowers in his hand, some horribly unmatched sizes and forms and colors. Peggy knew her face had just gotten much more wrinkled with the smile she couldn’t suppress.

“How generous of you,” she teased, “after all that time, to finally apologize for your behavior properly.”

“Agent Carter…” Barnes started, hesitant, but Peggy tssked with her tongue.

“Oh come on. Call me Peggy. Do I look like an Agent anymore? I’m just a fragile old woman,” she winked.

“Oh yeah,” Barnes drawled the agreement, his old Brooklyn accent showing. “Clearly I can disrespect one of the most powerful women like that.”

Peggy laughed, her voice breathless and hoarse already. Age did take a toll on her, but that was the prize of a long life fully lived, and she had accepted it a while ago. She patted the edge of her bed.

“Well, at least you aren’t surprised to see me,” Barnes sighed, and stepped in. His wolf followed him. Peggy wondered who convinced the nurses to let that animal in. Maybe Barnes flirted enough with them for it. Maybe that’s why he arrived so late in the afternoon. Peggy had seen him charming local girls and American nurses alike during the war to know that Barnes was good at that. He was what modern society would call a player, but back in their own days, it was considered to be a good trait.

Peggy wondered if Barnes would ever settle down with a nice girl, and looked up only when Steve put his chin on her thigh.

She must’ve lost a few seconds there, as they came in, because Barnes was sitting in a chair pulled up close to her bed and Steve was also settled down. Peggy couldn’t help the slight blush that creeped up on her face, suddenly very aware of her physical state.

“At least you aren’t surprised we’re here,” Barnes noted with a smile.

“How could I? Those silly agents ran for me as soon as they’d found you so I could identify you,” Peggy shrugged.

“You’d think they’d know my ugly mug from the photos by now.”

“I’m pretty sure it was the unexpected wolf that threw them off a bit,” Peggy smirked.

“I figured that was your doing,” Barnes said. “I looked in the books and the internet too, and found hardly any mention of a wolf, and when there is, it’s only a speculation or a conspiracy theory.”

“The world wasn’t ready for something like Steve.”

“And they are now?” Barnes asked, with such nonchalance that Peggy learned to identify as meaning the opposite.

She studied Barnes for a while - he really hadn’t changed. The ice he had fallen into preserved him like not a single day had passed since the forties, and not for the first time Peggy wondered what his life would’ve been like after the war, should fate have been kinder to him.

Steve’s tail drummed on the floor as he wriggled it and the seconds ticked down, one after the other. Barnes held her gaze with his own, unrelenting as ever, ready to dig his heels to the ground and stand on his own if necessary.

“I think…” Peggy was looking for the words carefully, knowing full well that they meant more than simply _words_ right now. “I think you’ve never worried about what people thought of you, and you definitely shouldn’t start now, in an age where everyone has their opinions and platforms to express them, no matter how stupid those opinions are. I think if anyone can make the world change direction in any way, it’s definitely the Captain America I knew back in the war. And I think…” her hand found Steve’s head, and she gently scratched him between the ears, just like the wolf liked, “I think the world is always ready for someone who is willing to shake it up a bit from its stupor.”

Barnes looked back at her wide-eyed, but he smiled, and his eyes became less haunted than they had been when he came in, and Peggy smiled back.

They talked a while, about everything really, old memories and new decades alike, and when Bucky and Steve were about to leave, Barnes held Peggy’s hands in his own palm, big enough to cover hers at least twice. “Thank you, Agent Carter,” he said, and breathed a kiss on her fingers without actually touching her skin with his lips, an old-timey gentleman’s gesture. Peggy secretly wished she could reciprocate it with a curtsey.

“You’re very welcome… Bucky.” The nickname felt strange on her tongue. It didn’t feel exactly right, but his eyes lit up, so it was worth it.

“Peggy,” he corrected himself quietly.

She continued, “Barnes. You’ve always been a troublemaker. Don’t try to change,” she warned. “And Steve.” The wolf looked at her and tilted his head in question. “Don’t take your eyes off of him.”

Steve quietly barked in agreement, and the pair left, and Peggy sank back in her pillows.

What strange times these were. What exciting times. She couldn’t wait to find out what these two were up to, but she was sure it would be magnificent. They never did anything half-hearted, after all.

***

Steve poked Bucky’s new arm with his nose. It smelled similar to the shield at first, but it took only a few days until Bucky’s original smell took over it. The metal became an added flavor instead of an alien scent, just like it happened with the shield back in the days. These items both belonged to Bucky as much as his lungs or other limbs did. He became complete with them, and if any of those weren’t with him Steve could tell that something was missing.

So Steve was grateful at first when some man handed the shield back to Bucky.

Bucky trained with his new arm, and he started to pay more attention to the outside world, but he remained at Steve’s side, always at Steve’s side, and Steve reciprocated it with the same. The new world was unfamiliar and threatening. They were in the future, that much he had understood, but he didn’t fully grasp what that meant to them. To him, at least – but Bucky slowly got to navigate it more easily and Steve relied on his knowledge, and became calmer too.

What Steve didn’t realize at first, was that giving back the shield meant that these men expected Bucky to _use_ it.

“They want me to be Captain America again, Stevie,” Bucky explained, crouched on his knees in front of Steve, petting his head with the metal arm. He was confident enough by now to touch Steve with it without fear of accidentally hurting him. “That means I’ll have to fight again. And I… I think I want to accept. I think I’d feel better if I were useful at least,” he added, hesitant.

Steve wasn’t sure he understood this, but he knew some things. He knew the way Bucky got restless in the human’s war when they didn’t have missions for a while. He knew the way Bucky almost glowed after a triumph, after an achievement. He knew that Bucky wasn’t complete with only him, that he needed other humans to have a pack. He knew that Bucky was happy with the Commandos as his pack, and while they couldn’t get the Commandos back, they could find new pack among the humans if they got back to fighting.

Steve slowly laid down, resting his head on Bucky’s lap, looking up at him and wriggling his tail, hoping Bucky would understand his agreement.

“You…” Bucky was at loss of words it seemed. “I thought you’d protest.”

Steve barked and pawed the floor, an equivalent of a human’s shrug. He was healed from their fall, and he was capable of fighting. He was not interested in the humans’ affairs, but he was interested in staying close to his pack and mate. (Even though he still didn’t have a way to let Bucky know that Steve thought of him as mate, as more than a member of the pack. He tried, but the faulty communication between them went only so far, and Bucky never seemed to understand him.)

So if they went back to fighting, Steve was okay with that. Fighting together was always good. They were strong and they were fast and no enemy could stand in their way for long. Steve could fight as long as Bucky wanted to as well, and when that was over, they could fight one more time to be free of the human wars.

Sounded like a plan in his head.

Steve grinned up at Bucky, eyes lit with mirth, and Bucky laughed and hugged him close with both arms.

“God, Steve, I’m so glad you’re with me. I’d be so lonely without you.”

Steve whined in agreement and buried his nose to Bucky’s chest, huffing and closing his eyes.

They’d be lonely without each other indeed. Steve would never let that happen.

***

Okay, Bucky was prepared to believe that fighting in the twenty-first century might be weird, but he hadn’t really grasped the extent of it.

They were fighting _aliens_ commanded by a _Norse God_ and his unit was made up of a bright red and gold robot with a billionaire inside, a green rage monster, a _Norse God_ of thunder, a redheaded woman who looked and acted like she could kill anyone with her toes and probably would, and a spy who fought with a bow and arrows and yet he was competent enough to keep up with all the others.

Holy shit, the future was weird.

So he didn’t have to wonder why none of them had a problem with Bucky bringing a wolf into combat.

***

After the dust had settled and all enemies were either dead or captured, Steve took a moment to sit back on his heels and howl at the sky he could barely see between these tall buildings and the smoke that made the air smell somehow less strange than it had been before.

Bucky answered, unashamed in front of the humans, and howled back to him, but he wasn’t the only one.

There was a third howl joining them, a female’s voice, and Steve knew immediately that it was the female with the instincts and smell of a spider, the one with almost-invisible threads coming from her fingers and an air of familiarity covering her presence like a cloak.

After a few seconds of pause there were other voices too, unpracticed and uncertain, but they were howling at the sky too, crescendo of voices not tuned together yet but with the promise in them to form something worth living and dying for.

Steve changed his tone, threading new syllables into his howl, and from simply victorious his voice turned into something more, something triumphant and strong and vivid, something that talked not only of battle but of pack and family too.

Later when they ate, none of them talked to each other, the weariness of the fight seeping into their muscles and bones, most of them barely munching on their food and only Steve and Thor eating with any appetite. Steve and the female exchanged looks, and if Bucky noticed that he didn’t show. They parted without talking about the future, about pack and about where they were going. Steve wanted to hold them back, his instincts told him to stop them and not let them leave the pack, but Bucky’s quiet word stopped him from protesting, and he just watched helplessly as their newfound pack disassembled before it had the chance to even form properly.

***

Bucky wasn’t sure what drove them together again. The fact that he felt like he needed to reconnect with them was understandable – the Avengers were the closest to camaraderie he got in the future. Once you’ve fought for your life and saved the world with people, you tend to bond with them.

Bucky shut SHIELD out of his life as much as he was able to, but he missed the Avengers.

He just didn’t expect the feeling to be mutual.

It was Clint at first, showing up with three boxes of pizza and a six-pack of beer. They watched cartoons on the tv and the archer talked about his dog Lucky the whole time while he scratched Steve’s ear who was between him and Bucky on the couch.

Then it was Thor, with five boxes of treats called pop tarts, and he gushed about a woman named Jane, talked a lot about how she helped him learn about this realm and maybe Bucky could use her insight and knowledge as well. Thor greeted Steve with his hands in his heart while he bowed, and as much as it surprised Bucky, it made his chest warm up too. Thor never once ignored Steve, made sure to include him in the conversations, and Bucky was caught unguarded and he couldn’t help but wonder that he’d miss him once he’d inevitably go back to his own home planet or whatever it actually was.

Two days later Bruce showed up.

Bruce mumbled something about yoga as he handed over a DVD, he offered his medical knowledge should Bucky need it, and asked if he could hang out a bit before he got off the grid again. They ordered for Indian food (Bruce insisted they should try it and Bucky had no protests, especially not after it turned out that curry made Steve sneeze the most adorable ways), and they somehow ended up on the roof of the building afterwards, and Bruce told tales of the city he grew up in as they watched the skyline turning from blue to pink and then dark and lights illuminating it beautifully.

Tony came after, all flashy bravado and loud demands, wanting to see the arm - and it turned out it was him who designed and built it in the first place. Tony made snarky comments about everything in the apartment, offered to replace basically every item with a more expensive and more advanced one bought or built by the inventor, then promptly wanted to leave and Steve had to block the door for him to change his mind. They talked about sci-fi novels in the end, and they both got a long list of books to read out of it, Bucky to catch up with the times and Tony to see how folks of the 'good old days' predicted the future to be.

Natasha was the last.

***

Natasha only showed up at Barnes’s door when everyone else had already done it, some of them more than once.

Bucky and Clint got on like a house on fire, same went for Tony. Thor and Bruce were a bit more complicated matter, neither of them as easygoing or as easily sociable, though in Thor’s case it was more due to a cultural barrier, while Bruce’s anxiety came from very personal reasons.

But they managed, and they grew extremely fond of Steve in exchange.

They were the Avengers, after all. Still, Natasha was pretty sure that at least four of the six members would choose to fight another alien invasion than to be forced into socialization.

Bucky wasn’t one of them.

Barnes was lonely, even with his wolf by his side.

Speaking of… Steve was a mystery. The others, Natasha was able to figure out more or less. But all the times Natasha watched them, Steve remained a wolf, not showing any intention to change, and Natasha couldn’t understand the reason. They couldn’t know she was watching, right? No one ever did, that was among her gifts, to be able to cover her presence completely.

She figured it was time to pay them a visit personally.

Natasha walked up to their door and slowly shed her disguise, leaving her invisibility behind like tiny vapor clouds in her wake that dissolved in the morning air quickly.

Barnes opened the door at the second ringing, rubbing his eyes, and Natasha was pretty sure it was more for the facade than for real need of the gesture. He leaned slightly on the wood-covered door frame. Steve was by his side as always, shoulder pressed to Barnes’s thigh. “Natasha,” he greeted, not even trying to make his fake surprise believable.

Natasha shouldered past them and barrelled into the apartment. She was pretty sure she was being let in, not breaking in. Once in the middle of the living room, she turned to face the two of them, her gaze landing on the human.

“Why don’t you trust us?”

It was almost comical to watch Barnes’s eyebrows flying up on her forehead, and this time his act was more convincing.

“What gave you that impression?” Bucky finally found his voice enough to phrase the question. Natasha ignored it.

“Or is it you, Steve? You don’t trust us?”

Steve, who stood quiet and still until this point, thawed out and wriggled his tail in a rather indecisive way. Neither of them seemed to know how to react.

"Look, ma'am, I have no idea why you think this is the way to act while visiting, but---"

“Why don’t you show yourself?” Natasha asked, still looking at Steve, and Steve froze, eyes on her, and Bucky’s fingers visibly tightened in his fur.

“Excuse us?”

“I get it, you can have totally justified trust issues with some of us, but Thor? Bruce? They’d never hurt or betray you, and you should know that already.”

“Stop there, for God’s sake,” Bucky pinned the bridge of his nose with his metal hand, and massaged it with a pained expression. “Natasha, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I think Steve doesn’t know either.”

“He has never showed his other form to us. I’m not saying you have to trust me bu--”

“Other form?”

Natasha reached out with her _other_ sense. It wasn’t something defined, easily expressed thing - it was fluid and ever-changing, just like her, but she had time to learn how to use it in her advantage, how to get more information than ordinary people ever could. She closed her eyes, comfortable in the knowledge that she saw Steve and Bucky better than she could with physical visual anyway, and looked at them. Bucky’s genuine confusion was bright green, the anger tethering at the edges with harsh red streaks, his dark steel-grey sadness overlapping the whole mental image. Steve also sported the same confused green, but his sadness was more dull, turning to blue at the edges. His aura was tilted to the positive side in general as opposed to Bucky’s pretty pessimistic emotional state on life.

Natasha licked her lips. She had done this before once - showing herself. She did it to Clint, and if she expected these broken boys to trust her, she had to go first, no matter how complicated the truth could be.

She took a step back and opened her eyes.

“I’ll go ahead,” she offered, “as a sign of my goodwill.”

***

Steve didn’t know what to expect. Female-pack-spider-Natasha’s words made very little sense, despite all of them being comprehensible on their own. What did she mean by Steve ‘showing himself’ and his ‘other form’?

But as soon as Natasha started to change, he had no chance to think about that anymore. His ears flattened to his head and he growled at her, fangs showing, to make sure she understood that she was on fucking thin ice. Steve wouldn’t let even another pack member endanger his mate, especially not someone from a pack that wasn’t really together in the normal sense of the word… even though Steve wasn’t sure what the criteria for normalcy could be and how did he know this about pack functionality without ever having a proper one.

Female-pack-spider-Natasha changed. Her form got covered in a thin layer of smoke-like matter, forming something to hide into, something that leaked tiny pieces of itself, something that tasted bittersweet when Steve snapped his jaws shut on one piece. She looked… not older, but more mature. So far she never had any distinguished smell - but her scent changed as well, turning into something Steve had… registered, distinctly, as familiar.

He realized he should remember that scent, but he couldn’t. It had a hard core with a soft edge, the sourness alleviated by the sweet exterior.

It fitted her, really. Both her as a human, and her as _this_ , covered in magic, glinting threads coming out from her fingers, her face having scales and she developing even a tail.

Steve wriggled his own curiously, his whole body shaking with excitement. Her transformation was amazing, seamless. She didn’t struggle with it, didn’t try to drive a wedge between her two halves.

“Holy cow,” Steve heard Bucky saying. “What _are_ you, Natasha?”

“I’m a Collector,” she answered, and her voice changed as well, was deeper than before. “And what are _you_ , boys?”

“Uh… a supersoldier and a wolf?”

Steve felt her gaze upon him as she and Bucky talked, and it had more weight than before. Him and Bucky both knew that a SHIELD agent like her wouldn’t just leave them alone in their world, but knowing about it and actually experience it was two different things.

“No, not just that. You, Barnes? You are some kind of immortal I’ve never seen before.”

Bucky sat down heavily next to Steve, it was Steve’s turn to help him. He licked Bucky’s face, and pressed his forehead to Bucky’s shoulder.

“Also not just a wolf,” she stated after she had given a few seconds to process. “You, Steve, are a Shifter.”

Steve couldn’t help the whine that escaped his throat, and the only thing that managed to anchor him were Bucky’s fingers threaded through his fur, grabbing the nape of his neck.

“Holy cow,” Bucky repeated, and for once, Steve agreed wholeheartedly. He turned his back to the woman - to the Collector? He wasn’t sure how to address her anymore. She wasn’t a threat. That he knew, he smelled, he sensed. And she was pack. She was theirs with Bucky. Or they were hers. The hierarchy wasn’t clear, but they belonged together, to the same pack, so there wasn’t a threat here.

Steve closed his eyes, and whined again, and Bucky looped his arms around him, and Steve didn’t want to move for a long time, her word pounding in his head.

_Shifter._

It wasn’t even just Natasha’s word. There was another voice, saying this word to him.

 _Shifter_.

His mother’s embrace, his mother’s warmth, accompanied by stories and lessons on how to be himself, regardless of the form he took upon. His heart ached and his mind felt like shattering into a million sharp pieces, cutting into flesh and soul alike.

_Shifter._

His sisters wrapping themselves around Steve’s body, a pile of happy puppies surrounded by the warmth of their pack and family.

_Shifter._

Steve whined again, pressed incredibly even closer to Bucky, making himself small-small-smaller, wishing to erase the last minutes from happening. They were good together. They were happy with Bucky, being who they were. Steve knew they couldn’t go back to that state, that blessed ignorance, and that everything was about to change.

_Shifter._

He didn’t know how things would change. He feared it wouldn’t be for the better. He was afraid: muscles spasming, guts clenching, stomach tightening, world narrowing down to the physical feelings of terror.

He didn’t want to lose what he had.

He feared he didn’t have a say in it.

***

Bucky was grateful that Natasha turned back to look like the close-to-ordinary human she appeared to be from the moment they’d met her, and left not long after she had dropped her bombs.

The next few days, they’ve both spent at various states of distress.

 _The Immortal._ The Nazi nickname made more sense now. How did they even know? Did Doctor Zola tell anyone about the experiments? Did they know from the start? Was it even true, or just Natasha’s presumption? Bucky couldn’t really deal with that yet, so he attempted to distract himself.

Steve curled up on himself, Bucky tried to research (he started to get the hang of Google and he _fucking loved the internet_ ), and they kept clinging to each other.

Google wasn’t helpful this time. Though it had eleven billion results for the word shapeshifter (and within one single second _oh my God_ ), and Bucky only read a handful of it, they weren’t convincing. They were mostly about books and movies and songs, also Bucky stumbled upon a site that offered things called fanfictions that had an enormous collection of the theme, but not exactly what he was looking for. There was a band called like this. (Bucky didn’t like their music.) There was a charity organization, there was…

So, there were a lot of things, but apart from myths and folklore and superstitions, Bucky didn’t find much useful information.

Not sure what he expected, he tried the term _werewolf_ that seemed similar in some of the folklore, then quickly backed away from the overwhelming seventy-two billion results.

Holy shit, internet.

Though even diving into that felt more tempting than to poke the other beehive.

_The Immortal._

That didn’t make sense at all. He wasn’t immortal. He was just… a supersoldier. Faster, stronger than ordinary humans, but still _human._ Immortality was too huge of a concept to be true, to even exist. What would that even mean? He grows old and just doesn’t die? He doesn’t even age? He outlives everyone around him?

(He shuddered at the thought that felt too close to their current situation and he went back to pet Steve, the repetitive motions soothing their wrecked nerves.)

On day four, he got a text message from Stark.

_Hey, centenarian. Rushman says you need an intervention. The renovations go well, meet in the Tower at 4 tomorrow, Bruce will be there to pick you and Steve up at 2:30._

Bucky read the message a few times, wondering who the hell Rushman might be.

 _Do I have to dress up?_ , he wrote back after some hesitation.

 _I don’t mind you in pajamas, as long as they’re not red white and blue_ , Tony answered immediately. Not what Bucky meant, but okay. It meant it would be an informal meeting. He looked at Steve, laying motionless in the bed like he had been for several hours by that time.

“Hey buddy. We’ll go out tomorrow to meet the others, okay?”

***

Natasha spent the last days thinking about Steve and Bucky.  They didn’t even know _what_ they were.

That was heartbreaking on so many levels, but more so, it was worrying. A creature unaware of their potentials and needs was always a loose cannon. And it usually was Nat’s task to eliminate those kind of threats. She was a spy, a hunter and an executioner all in one for all kind of supernatural creatures - that’s what she was trained for in the Red Room and that’s what she could offer to SHIELD after her defection.

And she was good at it, because of what she was. She was a collector, in many sense of the word. She didn’t only attract supernatural creatures: she was able, with the proper methods, to absorb their abilities into her own arsenal.

The Red Room recruited her after she accidentally consumed her home’s Kikimora: a spiderlike protector spirit that became her default form when not paying attention to appear as something else. She had been five years old at the time.

She got many forms, many abilities since then. She could survive on blood like a vampire. She could fly like a griffin. She could lure people like a siren. She could poison with her bite like a wyvern. Of course, she could be only one thing at a time, not all at once, but she still to this day preferred her original set of abilities. The Kikimora’s web and invisibility was handy and familiar, like a comfortable robe she slipped into when at home, while wearing other abilities and forms felt like wearing high heels on uneven ground. Doable, but definitely not comfortable - and sometimes not even safe.

Barnes and Steve, they were tempting. Natasha had never absorbed a wolf shifter. She wondered what it would be like to run through the forest untamed, to be as independent and wild and free as Steve seemed. Then her thoughts wandered to Bucky… but no. Immortality didn’t seem like a good deal, and she didn’t know enough of his kind. Of course, the fast reflexes, the good fighting abilities, the durability were good things,  things Natasha yearned for, but she already had some of those.

And anyway, Bucky and Steve… they weren’t her enemies. They weren’t her targets.

They could be her friends. They could be her team.

Natasha didn’t have anyone else to rely on but Clint, and while Clint was wonderful, this Avengers thing twanged something in her, something close to longing. She wondered what it would feel like if she had more than one person to trust. If she could rely on more than one person all the time. If she didn’t have to feel like she burdened Clint with all of her problems because she could distribute them onto more people. If she could ask for a second, or third opinion, when she was in doubt. If she had supernatural companions, people who’d understand what it meant to be _that different_.

Natasha wondered, what it would feel if the Avengers were a reality and not just a concept in Fury’s files.

She called Tony. They organized a meeting.

They’d make Avengers a reality.

***

Steve didn’t know what, but he immediately sensed that something had changed when he stood in front of Collector-spider-Natasha. Her scent was… different. She held herself differently. Metal-wielding-Stark was standing half a step behind her, on her left. Leather-arrows-Barton in line with him, just on her right side.

Huge-and-small-Banner blocked the escape route back to the metal-cage-elevator. Not like Steve was fond of going back there anyway.

He showed his fangs. The humans weren’t threatening, but they all stared at him and Bucky. Steve didn’t like when people stared at Bucky. His need to protect his mate flared up in him, and he took point, standing between the trio and Bucky.

Steve’s agitation made Bucky tense up as well. They were fine-tuned to each other better than ever before, each day spent together strengthening their bond. He didn’t want to risk it. He didn’t want things to change. Things weren’t perfect now, but they were good. Things could go so much worse than they were doing now.

“I’m not an enemy,” Natasha murmured, taking lead. Steve finally realized what bothered him. Her scent wasn’t much of a spider anymore. “We’re trying to help you.”

Which was nonsense. People’s scents didn’t change. Well, yes, of course they it did, but only on the surface: the essences  of it didn’t change.

Except hers did, apparently.

Steve’s fur stood, making him look bigger. Bucky placed a placating hand on his shoulder. “Let’s hear them out, shall we, Steve?” he suggested quietly.

“Steve.” Natasha crouched down. She made herself smaller, less of a threat. She had chosen a pose to limit her own mobility, to show trust. She lifted her chin high, baring her throat to him. Everything in his body language conveyed the same message: _I’m safe to be around._ It worked: Steve felt better and stopped snarling. “As far as I understand, you were stuck in wolf form for _at least_ years. Decades, if we count the ice, and the unknown times before Bucky had found you,” she explained.

Her voice was nice and soothing too. Steve wasn’t sure what she smelled of, but it was some bird of prey, he thought.

The two man behind her also moved slowly, but Steve’s eyes followed them as well. Bucky’s fingers caressed small circles hidden in the fur.

It felt nice. Bucky behind him, protecting his back, and she in front of him, offering her throat, talking without haste. Steve sat down, looking from one to another. They were slowly closing a circle around him, but that… didn’t felt threatening anymore.

“This could help?” Bucky asked.

“I hope so.” Natasha nodded and slowly lifted her hand, palms up, for Steve to sniffle. He did, and then looked around. His mate right behind him, two pack members on his left and one on his right and she in front of him. A full circle of pack he could rely on, if he chose so.

Natasha slowly put her hand on his head, and he didn’t protest. Quite the opposite, he pushed into the contact. “There you go,” she smiled. “I know it’s not easy, Steve, but you have to trust us. Remember that moment after the battle.”

Steve knew very well what moment she meant. The glorious howl, the first shared howl of the pack they were forming in fight and in victory. He wriggled his tail and lowered himself on the floor, acknowledging that experience.

They formed a pack. And though they seemingly went to separate ways after, they were here again. They’d found each other again, because a pack was not to be broken up like that.

“You’re safe,” Tony said.

It was true.

“You have us,” Bruce stated.

He started to believe it.

“You won’t lose us,” Clint said.

He wanted it to be the reality forever.

“Till the end of the line,” Bucky whispered.

He would always trust Bucky.

Steve laid on the floor, surrounded by touches and warmth of his pack, soothed by reassuring words of them. And it was so silly, not being able to answer. He wanted to let them know that he understood, that he believed. He wanted to tell them that it went both ways, that Steve would protect them as well, that he wouldn’t go away either. They were his pack, his life, his everything. The voice of his mother echoed in his head, saying those words to him when he was just a kid. His mother who had taught him how to control his nature, how to tame his wolf, how to preserve his mind when in a body of an animal.

The warmth of pack was the same regardless of ages, it was the same stability and safety, it was the same comfort and familiarity.

Bucky leaned forward, on his knees, and Steve felt the added warmth radiating from his mate’s body as he was enveloped into an embrace. “Please, Steve,” Bucky murmured. “If you can…” He didn’t finish.

But it wasn’t necessary anyway. The soft plea spoke for itself anyway.

It felt like a slowly rising level of water behind a dam. Each word, each reassurance, each touch added a little to it, but it was Bucky who made it spill over. Steve closed his eyes. For some reason he was expecting pain to come - punishment, maybe, for wanting too much, for wanting to do this, both for his pack and for himself.

But pain didn’t come. It was heat instead, all-encompassing, ever-consuming, but never-burning heat. It covered him like a blanket, then sneaked inside his body, slided on his bones and filled up his veins; embraced his cells altogether and one by one as well. He closed his eyes and relaxed into it, gave himself over to the sensations and the heat and the transformation like his mother always advised him to do.

He felt himself changing, but he couldn’t see.

He felt his joints crackling as they changed, he felt his organs shifting inside, he felt the fur drawing back and leaving soft skin exposed. It was all accompanied by exhaustion, a well-deserved fatigue like after a battle. Pain didn’t come.

What came were soft gasps and a satisfied chuckle and a blanket covering his naked form as he started shivering. Steve blinked up at Bucky, hovering over him, and smiled at him, the gesture strange on his lips, before falling into deep slumber.

***

The transformation was probably the most confusing moment of Bucky’s life. Feeling so many things at once, from love through gratitude and amazement to lust, he was afraid he’d explode.

Natasha wanted Steve to be cuddled from all sides, but Bucky couldn’t allow that.

“He’s unconscious,” he argued, “and he can’t agree for all of you to touch him while he’s asleep.” So he lifted Steve up himself, ready to carry him to a guest room and cuddle him, promising Natasha that he wouldn’t leave Steve alone.

“He shifted because he was safe with his pack,” Natasha pointed out after she had given up trying to convince Bucky, “he’ll need his pack when he wakes up.”

It was a good point, but Bucky didn’t change his mind. It wasn’t just about trust… it was about boundaries too, and Steve couldn’t set his own boundaries in his state, so Bucky had to make sure that none of them stepped through them.

He promised he’d notify the others once Steve woke up, and he crashed on the bed next to him, curling up around a new body but the same person, spooning Steve from behind.

Of course, because life was funnily cruel like that, Steve chose to wake up in that particular half minute when Bucky had to go to the bathroom. As soon as Bucky heard movement from the bed, he ran back like crazy, his fly down and his heartbeat frantic – and there Steve was, with his eyes finally open, staring up at him.

Bucky stopped next to the bed, and for a few seconds, he just stared.

It had turned out that his wolf was a beautiful, beautiful man. Blond-haired with the bluest baby blue eyes, his features soft and stubborn at the same time, with a jawline that could cut diamonds, lips that renaissance painters would want to paint and lashes that would make any woman jealous. He was built strong – possibly because of all those running around in the woods too, but he was also just generally muscular, broad shoulders and narrow waist.

Steve looked back at Bucky, unmoving since Bucky raced back to the room, and cleared his throat. “Back?... Come back?” he tried, his voice rusty and hoarse from the lack of use, and even he blinked a few times hearing it.

Bucky wasn’t sure what kept him from crying happy tears. “Yeah, sure,” he agreed, slipping back under the blankets.

“Pack?” Steve asked.

“Close by. They wanted to stay, but I didn’t know if you wanted that or not, so they’ll only come in when we call for them,” Bucky explained hastily. “Do you want me to call them? Natasha thought you’d want the pack to be around.”

Steve nodded, then shook his head immediately, then stopped to think. He took deep breaths, stretched the muscles in his arms. “Weird,” he concluded. “Stay,” he added, and turned around to face Bucky.

“I don’t go anywhere.” His heartbeat sped up again, and Bucky stared into Steve’s eyes, blue eyes, human eyes from up close.

Steve studied him for a few seconds, then buried his nose to Bucky’s neck. “Mate,” he stated.

“Sure, pal. I’m your packmate, yeah.”

“No.” Steve shook his head, but didn’t pull back. “You’re more than packmate. You’re my _mate._ My only mate.” He hugged Bucky closer, limbs wrapped around tightly.

“Oh,” Bucky said very intelligently, too lost in the embrace, too lost in the feelings for proper thoughts and words. “Does that… does that mean…? In human terms…” He wasn’t sure how to ask, but he had to, he needed to clarify. He didn’t want his high hopes to be crushed.

Steve seemed to think about it for a moment.

“Husband,” he finally said, matter of factly, but looking at Bucky intently. “I think that’s the closest term.”

Wow.

Bucky’s brain short-circuited.

“Wow,” he repeated out loud as well.

“I knew since… since the airplane,” Steve confessed, his cheeks turning pink. He blushed like he did everything: perfectly, at least in Bucky’s opinion.

“I didn’t really expect to be engaged today,” the joke slipped out before Bucky could think of it better.

Steve pulled back a bit. “I’m sorry if… I know it’s the first time we actually talk…” he stammered, clearly embarrassed.

Bucky had none of this. Steve was his best friend, the one he felt closest to. The only thing that stopped him from falling in love with him before was being a wolf. It wasn’t an issue anymore. Steve was still his best friend and the one Bucky felt closest to, but now he was _also_ the most gorgeous human being Bucky had ever laid eyes on.

He leaned forward, and pushed his lips to Steve’s, shutting the apologies.

Steve reacted instantly, opening his mouth, letting Bucky’s tongue in, and moaning softly into the kiss. Bucky tasted him with closed eyes, sour and sweet at the same time, as he explored Steve’s mouth like his life depended on memorizing every little detail of it. Finally, a minute or an eternity later, he pulled back, gently sucking and nipping on Steve’s lower lip for a few times, before opening his eyes and smirked at Steve again.

“I didn’t say I mind it, Stevie.”

Steve lunged forward to kiss him.


	3. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _When Steve woke up from a nightmare, Bucky comforted him. When he shivered and cried out for his long lost family, Bucky wrapped his arms around him and rocked him back and forth until it got better._
> 
> _When Bucky got lost in his thoughts about being immortal, Steve gently held his hand and called him until he returned to the reality._
> 
> CAPRBB epilogue and BBB fill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BBB fill:  
> Title: Howl Home (Shift for Me) - chapter 3  
> Square Filled: B5 - Supernatural  
> Author: Menatiera (me)  
> Pairing: Steve/Bucky, team as family  
> Rating: Teen  
> Warnings: none for this chapter  
> Summary: When Steve woke up from a nightmare, Bucky comforted him. When he shivered and cried out for his long lost family, Bucky wrapped his arms around him and rocked him back and forth until it got better.  
> When Bucky got lost in his thoughts about being immortal, Steve gently held his hand and called him until he returned to the reality.  
> CAPRBB epilogue and BBB fill.

They didn’t really plan this, but the Avengers… didn’t move out.

Even though the Tower was still under construction. The construction workers some days had the joy of enjoying a helping hand from Captain America or Iron Man himself when they had to lift things, or getting coffee from Hawkeye during their lunch break. The noise was a bit irritating, but it wasn’t a high price for staying together.

After a few weeks had passed, Tony simply announced that he had changed their addresses to the Tower, and therefore they are obliged to stay. No one protested.

***

Steve didn’t have an easy time adjusting.

After years spent in a wolf’s body, he mostly didn’t like being human. Without his thick fur the world was cold; without his fangs he felt defenseless. The clothes, no matter how soft the fabric was, irritated his skin, and the perspective of being on two legs instead of four gave him vertigo.

Of course it had its perks.

Mostly kissing Bucky.

So he spent most of his times by doing exactly that, until even Natasha lost her patience and insisted to set up a limited PDA policy in the common rooms of the Tower.

Steve just grinned at her, the gesture surprisingly wolfish, and plastered himself over Bucky’s lap on the couch.

***

Bucky was happy. He didn’t say it out loud, because he didn’t want to jinx it, but he had got everything he could wish for.

He had his _mate_ , though he preferred the term boyfriend, and no one could say a bad word about Steve being a man instead of a woman in this age. He had a pack, a team – a group of people who he considered family already. Natasha was fitting the role of the exasperated aunt and Tony made a perfect eccentric uncle, Thor the distant relative who dropped by with the best stories when he came, while Bruce and Clint felt like siblings. One of them is the serious and smart and sassy older brother, and the other one is the disaster and smart and sassy little brother.

Bucky never had siblings before, so he loved this new formula for his life.

They were still the Avengers, so there was a chance to go out and fight at any moment, but so far life was quiet and easy, no signs of another alien invasion on the horizon.

***

Natasha never thought he’d need a pack. She couldn’t help but call it that in her head – it was Steve’s pack, technically, and he was the only one who should legitimately call it like that, but all of them started to use the expression.

It made Steve beam happily every time.

Most of her life Natasha had been a lone predator. She was raised like that, her targets were raised like that. But from the moment she was _in it_ , she realized she _liked it_.

Belonging to somewhere, to people, filled something in her, and absence that she didn’t recognize before. Not to mention that seeing others happy made Natasha happy as well. Clint smiled wider after he introduces Bucky and Steve to videogames. Bruce slowly eased into his skin around the others, and the number of his sassy remarks grew with the comfort and safety he felt in the group. Tony fiddled less, and slept better. Bucky’s aura seemed less grey and more yellow. And Steve got a reason to not flee back into his wolf form again for a while.

Of course, the world wasn’t black and white, and therefore this idyllic life couldn’t be as perfect as it sounded, but it was still better than the life they’d all lived before.

***

When Steve woke up from a nightmare, Bucky comforted him. When he shivered and cried out for his long lost family, Bucky wrapped his arms around him and rocked him back and forth until it got better.

When Bucky got lost in his thoughts about being _immortal_ , Steve gently held his hand and called him until he returned to the reality.

***

When Tony wandered the common rooms in the middle of the night like a ghost, there were always someone who came out and sat down to listen to his rambling about engines and projects. When Clint did the same, someone got up and they brew the strongest coffee they could and played cards until dawn. Burce’s turn was always watching bad ‘80s movies muted while he stared at the screen, and Natasha needed to do some weaving whenever she felt too restless for sleep.

***

They spent a lot of time alone, since they were still mostly used to being solitary creatures. No matter if it was reading or fight practice, yoga or engineering, their hobbies and pastime activities were ones that they did alone so far.

They came up with new hobbies for being together.

Clint introduced Steve and Bucky to videogames. Mario Cart and Legend of Zelda became the fix Tuesday evening program, until Tony came in and dropped the bomb of VR gaming, and there were no stopping from there.

The ones who liked to be in the kitchen (Bruce, Bucky, Tony) took up cooking. Or, more precisely, baking. It would have been a fulltime job to feed this many people, including supernatural creatures and supersoldiers and occasionally a Norse God, so Tony hired a chef for that purpose, but still they made their own cookies, brownies and cupcakes, not to mention if they wished to eat something out of the planned menu. Team dinner became a mandatory program for everyone.

And there were dance nights on Wednesdays – either one of them teaching the steps they knew, or everyone trying their luck with Wii’s Just Dance game – and the movie nights on Friday and Sunday.

***

Steve sighed, crammed between Bucky and Natasha on the couch, and didn’t pay attention as Clint threw popcorn to the television screen, expressing his opinion about today’s movie.

Bucky played with his hair, and Natasha’s fingers weaved almost invisible threads coming from he tip of her fingers together as she watched the scene unfolding. Steve held the end of her threads, making sure that the braid she was making remained stretched during the process. Tony sketched on his tablet, and Bruce was the only one who properly paid attention to the tv.

Steve turned his head, and Bucky happily obliged to lean in and kiss him.

“Cold?” Bucky asked quietly, ready to dig out another blanket, and Steve shook his head. No. Despite wearing only clothes instead of fur, he wasn’t cold – he was in the middle of his pack.

He grinned at Bucky, then tilted his head back – and he howled.

His howl was not less powerful in human form than it had been in wolf form.

Bucky and Natasha were quick to follow, joining in during the second syllable, and the others threw their heads back as well after a beat or two, and the Avengers, in the middle of their living room, howled their unity as a pack.

The voice echoed from the walls, bounced back and forth between everyone, covering them and filling them up with strange energy, static electricity on their skin and liquid warmth in their guts.

They were family, they were pack, they belonged together.

Life was good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was it! Thanks if you've read through, please leave a comment and let me know how did you like it! Also you can find me on [my tumblr](https://menatiera.tumblr.com) or on Discord, I have the same name everywhere. Cheers!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Bring Me Home](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20525918) by [deathofthestars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathofthestars/pseuds/deathofthestars)




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